Get all 12 Sci-Fi Romance releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of From the Plague Year, The Rain Becomes a River, Dreamers & Runaways, When the Levee Breaks, A Burning Ember to a Grove of Trees, Dust Among the Stars, October, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (single), and 4 more.
1. |
John Henry, Part 1
04:47
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This will be the death of me
And what will I, what will I leave behind?
Will they sing my name
After they lay me in the sand
There won’t be no victory
For this heart that beats, and hands that bleed
What more can they take
Than I gave with this hammer in my hand?
‘Cause maybe I was born
For such a time as this
Maybe I was born
So this moment could be written
You’re wrapped in chains and told you’re free
By men with force or men who pay
But I’m through selling me
And if I fall, then at least I made a stand
Maybe I was born
For such a time as this
Maybe I was born
So this moment could be written
I will rise...
Maybe I was born
For such a time as this
Maybe I was born
So this moment could be written
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2. |
We Used to Sing
04:24
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We used to sing of glories yet to come
How the troubles of this life would soon be done
We’d raise our eyes up to darkened skies
And pray for angel wings to bring us home
But I can’t sing those songs the way I used to
The words just feel so empty on my tongue
No, I can’t sing those songs the way I used to do
The way I did before I was in love
We used to sing the songs of the open road
Saying where we lay our head we call our home
Always blind to what we left behind
And never sure what we were running from
But I can’t sing those songs the way I used to
The words just feel so empty on my tongue
No, I can’t sing those songs the way I used to do
The way I did before I was in love
I used to sing a sad, sad lullaby
Alone beneath the distant stars at night
How no fallen world could ever make us whole
And happiness was meant to pass some by
But I can’t sing those songs the way I used to
The words just feel so empty on my tongue
No, I can’t sing those songs the way I used to do
The way I did before I was in love
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3. |
Tomorrow May Take You
03:47
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It takes so long to fall asleep
When you're gone
This aching house just moans and creaks
When you’re gone
No wishing star to shine for me
When you're gone
When you’re gone
But when you're here
You're here and I can make some sense
Of this life
In this life everything I need is in
Your arms
Your arms can hold me fast against tomorrow
Because tomorrow may take you again
I watch your shape fade down the road
When you leave
I feel those footsteps in my bones
When you leave
And I beg the winds to bring you home
When you leave
When you leave
'Cause when you're here
You're here and I can make some sense
Of this life
In this life everything I need is in
Your arms
Your arms can hold me fast against tomorrow
Because tomorrow may take you again
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4. |
Steam Drill Blues
04:39
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The morning come
Sun-burnt sky
Swing the hammer
Drive the spike
I got a girl
Left alone
‘Cause I’m too many
Miles from home
Gotta go where that money flows
‘Cause love don’t buy too many clothes
It’s a job that breaks your back and soul
But’s what we do ‘cause it’s what we know
The country grows
We make the way
Our blood and sweat
For a better day
Now they say
We’ll be replaced
Machines are coming
To push us out the way
What to do when that money goes?
‘Cause love don’t buy too many clothes
It’s a job that breaks your back and soul
But’s what we do ‘cause it’s what we know
Before the Lord
I’ll stand proud
No machine
Will beat me down
No, no machine
Will beat me down
Bring that drill
Coal and steam
Bring it ‘round
To hear this hammer ring
Against a wall
A man will fight
I’d beat that drill
Though it take my life
What to do when that money goes?
‘Cause love don’t buy too many clothes
It’s a job that breaks your back and soul
But’s what we do ‘cause it’s what we know
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5. |
Broken World
03:45
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It’s a dry season
‘Til the rain begins to fall
And it’s a barren winter
‘Til the ice begins to thaw
Until I knew you
Gray was all I saw
‘Cause it’s a broken world
But here we are, you and I
Somehow I found the only one
Who could ever help me see
That in the cracks is beauty
That in the cracks is beauty
The empty branches
Give way to the bloom
And the burning daylight
Yields to the moon
No matter what the distance
You know I’ll hold you soon
‘Cause it’s a broken world
But here we are, you and I
Somehow I found the only one
Who could ever help me see
In the cracks there’s beauty
In the cracks is beauty
It’s a broken world
Yeah, it’s a broken world
It’s a broken world
But in the cracks, there’s beauty
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6. |
More to Rust
03:38
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My strength
My enemy
Gone, the days I thought I had
Ahead of me
My strength
My enemy
Work my hands have done I'm told
Is obsolete
You use words like progress
You use words like change
And grind your brothers down beneath
This onward rushing train
The world keeps spinning faster
But where's it taking us?
The more machines we build
The more there is to rust, and I say…
Oh, oh, oh,
You can keep tomorrow
I don't know how to live the life you're promising
Oh, oh, oh
You can keep tomorrow
If disappointment is all it brings.
My pride
My ability
Though the ground may shift and change
Beneath my feet
My pride
My ability
Haven’t met the mountain yet
Could conquer me
You can yell your progress
And you can yell your change
But if this river breaks its banks
We all drown just the same
The world keeps spinning faster
But where's it taking us?
The more machines we build
The more there is to rust and I say…
Oh, oh, oh,
You can keep tomorrow
I don't know how to live the life you're promising
Oh, oh, oh
You can keep tomorrow
If disappointment is all it brings
My strength...
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7. |
God, In His Wisdom
04:22
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I once heard an old and broken man
Say that he wouldn’t change a thing
All the pain and life’s suffering
Had made the man he was that day
But who can say what could’ve been?
Who can say what could’ve been?
I think of roads I might’ve walked
And in the dark I pray
That God in his wisdom
Has led me this way
A boy in prison blues held his head up high
Said that he wouldn’t be ashamed
His heart could not be caged by walls or by chains
Another chance and he’d use it just the same
But who can say what could’ve been?
Who can say what could’ve been?
I think of roads I might’ve walked
And in the dark I pray
That God in his wisdom
Has led me this way
We make peace with the
Past we create
Or we fall beneath its weight
The wife of a wealthy man cries herself to sleep
Thinks of a love that she once turned away
He'd asked for her hand, but she was too afraid
And sold her heart for some money and a name
Now who can say what could’ve been?
Who can say what could’ve been?
I think of roads I might’ve walked
And in the dark I pray
That God in his wisdom
Has led me this way
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8. |
The Morning Breaks
02:55
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The morning breaks
It smiles on me
I know what I’ve been
But not what I’ll be
Today they’ll see
When fate calls my name
I won’t shrink away
…Today they’ll see
The devil takes
He takes my hand
And tells me that I’m nothing
Just a broken man
Today he’ll see
I won’t be fooled this time
I won’t believe the same old lies
…Today he’ll see
Days I forget but I don’t mean to
All I love and things I choose
Can take this clay, and shape it new
Today I’ll see
The blue of the sky
And as the sun does shine
…So will I
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9. |
John Henry, Part 2
05:51
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When I was just a little baby
My mother whispered softly over me
“My child, my boy
The only way to live is on your feet”
Now the sun is high and it begins
The smell of burning coal upon the winds
My hammer, their steam
A mountain made to dust beneath each swing
At the end of this race
Eternity awaits
At the end of this race
I will reach the light of day
On, and on we go
Lord, Lord
Deep inside the rock it’s hard to breathe
Visions of my love, they come to me
My baby, my girl
I’ll fall into your arms come victory
At the end of this race
Eternity awaits
At the end of this race
I will reach the light of day
On, and on we go
Lord, Lord
Home.
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10. |
My Love, Look Up
04:09
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Into the light we walk
An ocean of sky that calls
Its voice like wind and a welcome hand
To bear us away when we fall
But I go there with you
My love, my love
But I go there with you
My love, my love
We point our feet for home
But none we’ve ever known
We only fear the road ahead if we
Feel that we walk it alone
But I go there with you
My love, my love
But I go there with you
My love, my love
My love, look up
My love, look up
The clouds are lifting
From the sky above
A new day is coming
My love, look up
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Sci-Fi Romance Los Angeles, California
Sci-Fi Romance is an independent folk band from Los Angeles that blends unique arrangements and a dark, percussive take on acoustic music into a sound that has been labeled "steamfolk." It began as the solo project of singer/songwriter Vance Kotrla.
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